OPM says it won’t reopen Recruitment One-Stop buy

By GCN Staff

Jul 22, 2003

The Office of Personnel Management will continue to work with Monster Government Solutions to revamp its usajobs.opm.gov after deciding yesterday against following the General Accounting Office’s recommendation that OPM recompete a procurement to upgrade the Web site.

In a letter to GAO, OPM said it would be unwise to reopen the buy for the Recruitment One-Stop Quicksilver project because it would be “incompatible with the best interest of the federal government.”

OPM said it needed to continue working with TMP Worldwide Government Services of New York, the parent company of Monster Government Solutions, because the agency already has paid TMP $4.8 million for work to reach the e-government project’s first two milestones.

Additionally, OPM said it could have recompeted the integration and maintenance portion of the contract, but that would require access to TMP’s source code. And TMP declined to provide a license, OPM said.

OPM also told GAO that national “security demands and critical domestic needs underlie the government’s vital need for efficient recruitment and hiring methods.”

GAO now is required under the Competition in Contracting Act to inform the House Appropriations and Government Reform committees and the Senate Appropriations and Governmental Affairs committees of OPM’s determination. That is according to Dan Gordon, GAO’s managing associate general counsel, who last month explained the process following an agency’s refusal to follow GAO’s recommendations in a procurement protest ruling.

GAO ruled that OPM should re-evaluate all bids to determine whether the proposed services are within the scope of the winning company’s schedule contract. GAO also recommended that OPM reopen discussions with all bidders in the competitive range and re-evaluate their revised offers. (Click for May 7, 2003, GCN story)

OPM in January awarded a five-year contract to TMP. OPM could extend the contract to 2013 through option years. The potential value of the contract is $62 million over 10 years.